Pi'el Future: אדבר, תדברי, ידבר | Hebrew Grammar

The future is a prefix conjugation: the person is marked in front of the stem, not behind it. Pi'el makes the least fuss of any binyan about how that prefix attaches — it carries barely a vowel, and nothing at all is inserted between it and the stem.

The full paradigm

Subject	Pointed	Written	Reading
אֲנִי	אֲדַבֵּר	אדבר	adabér
אַתָּה	תְּדַבֵּר	תדבר	tedabér
אַתְּ	תְּדַבְּרִי	תדברי	tedabrí
הוּא	יְדַבֵּר	ידבר	yedabér
הִיא	תְּדַבֵּר	תדבר	tedabér
אֲנַחְנוּ	נְדַבֵּר	נדבר	nedabér
אַתֶּם / אַתֶּן	תְּדַבְּרוּ	תדברו	tedabrú
הֵם / הֵן	יְדַבְּרוּ	ידברו	yedabrú

Four prefixes, א ת י נ, exactly as in every other binyan. What is specific to pi'el is the vowel under them: a bare shva (תְּ, יְ, נְ) and a chataf-patach in the first person (אֲ), because א cannot take a plain shva. In speech both come out as a short e.

אני אדבר איתו הערב ואגיד לך מה הוא אמר.

aní adabér itó ha'érev ve'agíd lekhá ma hu amár

I'll speak to him tonight and tell you what he says. (to a man)

הוא ידבר בכנס בעוד שבועיים.

hu yedabér bakénes be'ód shvu'áyim

He's speaking at the conference in a fortnight.

נדבר מחר בבוקר, עכשיו אני כבר לא תופס כלום.

nedabér makhár babóker, akhsháv aní kvar lo tofés klum

Let's talk tomorrow morning — I'm not taking anything in by now. (m. speaker)

Why nothing goes between the prefix and the stem

Compare the three high-frequency active binyanim in the same cell:

Binyan	Pointed	Written	Reading	What sits after the prefix
pa'al	יִכְתּוֹב	יכתוב	yikhtóv	chirik + a full theme vowel (cholam), written with a vav
pi'el	יְדַבֵּר	ידבר	yedabér	shva — nothing else
hif'il	יַתְחִיל	יתחיל	yatkhíl	patach + a long i, written with a yod

Pi'el has no room for anything extra because its middle root letter is doubled — the dagesh in the בּ of יְדַבֵּר is the binyan's signature, and a doubled consonant needs a vowel on each side of it. That fills the word. Pa'al and hif'il, whose middle radical is single, each insert a full vowel that pi'el simply cannot fit.

Read the Written column across. For a sound root, the pi'el future is the only one of the three spelled with no mater at all — יכתוב has its vav, יתחיל has its yod, ידבר has nothing. And note what is missing relative to the past tense: דיברתי has a yod, ידבר does not, because that yod was never a root letter. It spelled the i of the past stem, and the future stem has a patach instead.

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A useful reading heuristic, worth stating with its limits. Take a form that is a person prefix plus exactly three ordinary consonants: no vav after the second of them and no yod before the last normally means pi'el — ידבר, ישלם, יבקש. Add a vav and you are in pa'al's default class (יכתוב); add a yod before the last letter and you are in hif'il (יתחיל). Two things sit outside the heuristic. A ת immediately after the prefix is hitpa'el, whatever follows it — יתלבש is yitlabésh, not a pi'el. And pa'al's a-class writes nothing either, so ילמד is both yilmád "he will learn" and yelaméd "he will teach", with only the context to separate them.

Three more verbs

Subject	שׁ־ל־ם pay	ב־ק־שׁ ask	ס־פ־ר tell
אֲנִי	אֲשַׁלֵּם ashalém	אֲבַקֵּשׁ avakésh	אֲסַפֵּר asapér
אַתָּה / הִיא	תְּשַׁלֵּם teshalém	תְּבַקֵּשׁ tevakésh	תְּסַפֵּר tesapér
אַתְּ	תְּשַׁלְּמִי teshalmí	תְּבַקְּשִׁי tevakshí	תְּסַפְּרִי tesaprí
הוּא	יְשַׁלֵּם yeshalém	יְבַקֵּשׁ yevakésh	יְסַפֵּר yesapér
אֲנַחְנוּ	נְשַׁלֵּם neshalém	נְבַקֵּשׁ nevakésh	נְסַפֵּר nesapér
הֵם / הֵן	יְשַׁלְּמוּ yeshalmú	יְבַקְּשׁוּ yevakshú	יְסַפְּרוּ yesaprú

The tsere behaves exactly as it does in the past: it survives with no ending (yeshalém) and reduces to a shva before ־י and ־וּ, which take the stress (yeshalmú). Pi'el follows the general Hebrew rule here — unlike hif'il and the hollow verbs, where the stem vowel keeps the beat and you get tagídi, not tagidí.

אני אשלם עכשיו ואתה תחזיר לי אחר כך.

aní ashalém akhsháv ve'atá takhzír li akhár kakh

I'll pay now and you can settle up with me later. (m. speaker, to a man)

הם ידברו על התקציב רק בישיבה הבאה.

hem yedabrú al hataktsív rak bayshivá haba'á

They won't discuss the budget until the next meeting.

The feminine plural

The classical paradigm has a separate feminine plural, תְּדַבֵּרְנָה tedabérna, doing duty for both אתן and הן. Pealim prints it and marks the cell as one where the masculine form is generally used instead. That is the accurate description: תדברו and ידברו are correct Hebrew for a group of women, not a tolerated slip. Both options are normative; the ־נָה forms are simply rare in speech. Treat תדברנה as something to recognise in a legal text or a poem, and see where the נָה forms went for the wider pattern.

The future is how commands are given

Israelis give ordinary instructions with the second-person future, not with the imperative. This has a name in Hebrew grammar — עתיד בתפקיד ציווי — and it is a question of register, not of correctness.

תדבר איתו לפני שהוא מחליט משהו.

tedabér itó lifnéi shehú makhlít máshehu

Talk to him before he decides anything. (to a man — a request, not a prediction)

תבקשי מהמנהל שיאשר את זה בכתב.

tevakshí mehamnahél sheye'ashér et ze bikhtáv

Ask the manager to confirm it in writing. (to a woman)

תספרי לי בדיוק מה היה שם, אני לא מבינה כלום.

tesaprí li bediyúk ma hayá sham, aní lo meviná klum

Tell me exactly what happened there — I'm not following any of it. (f. speaker, to a woman)

The true imperative דַּבֵּר also exists, and is treated on the pi'el infinitive and imperative.

The guttural class here too

Where the middle root letter is א or ר, the stem vowel is a kamatz rather than a patach — and the e of the past does not appear in the future at all:

מי יברך על היין?

mi yevarékh al hayáyin?

Who's saying the blessing over the wine?

יְבָרֵךְ yevarékh, יְגָרֵשׁ yegarésh, יְתָאֵר yeta'ér — against יְדַבֵּר yedabér. The ה/ח/ע verbs keep the patach (יְמַהֵר yemahér, יְנַהֵל yenahél), and the reason for the split is on why בירך but דיבר.

Common Mistakes

1. Giving the pi'el future a pa'al theme vowel. Learners meet יכתוב, ישמור and יסגור first and generalise the vav.

❌ מחר הוא ידבור איתה

Incorrect as a spelling — the cholam of יכתוב belongs to pa'al. Pi'el has no vowel between the second and third root letters, so it is ידבר, and the same goes for ישלם, יבקש, יספר.

✅ מחר הוא ידבר איתה על התאריך.

makhár hu yedabér itá al hata'aríkh

He'll talk to her about the date tomorrow.

2. Reading the string as pa'al. The same habit runs in the other direction when you meet ידבר on an unpointed page.

❌ ידבר

yidbár

Incorrect — yedabér. There is no pa'al verb from ד־ב־ר at all, so *yidbár is not a word in any register. Unpointed ידבר can only be pi'el.

✅ הוא ידבר ראשון ואחר כך אני.

hu yedabér rishón ve'akhár kakh aní

He'll speak first and then me.

3. Using תדבר for אַתְּ. The prefix ת covers you (m.), you (f.) and she, and only the ending separates them.

❌ את תדבר איתו על זה

Incorrect — תדבר addresses a man (or means 'she will speak'). To a woman the ending is obligatory: תדברי. The prefix alone never marks gender.

✅ את תדברי איתו על זה או שאני אדבר?

at tedabrí itó al ze o she'aní adabér?

Are you going to talk to him about it, or should I? (to a woman)

4. Stressing the stem instead of the ending. English speakers keep the beat where the dictionary form had it.

❌ תדברי

tedábri

Incorrect — tedabrí. When ־י or ־וּ is added, the ending takes the stress and the tsere collapses: tedabrí, yedabrú, teshalmí. (Hif'il is the exception, not pi'el: tagídi keeps its stem stress.)

✅ תדברו ביניכם ותחזרו אליי עם תשובה.

tedabrú beinékhem vetakhzerú elái im tshuvá

Talk it over between you and get back to me with an answer. (to a group)

Key Takeaways

Four prefixes — א ת י נ — over a stem that never changes its consonants: adabér, tedabér, yedabér, nedabér.
The prefix vowel is a bare shva, or a chataf-patach in the first person (אֲדַבֵּר). Nothing is inserted between prefix and stem, because the doubled middle radical leaves no room.
For a sound root the pi'el future is spelled with no mater at all — ידבר, ישלם, יבקש — where pa'al's default class writes a vav (יכתוב) and hif'il a yod (יתחיל). Pa'al's a-class writes nothing either, so ילמד is ambiguous between yilmád and yelaméd.
The yod of the past is gone. דיברתי has one because the past stem has an i; the future stem has a patach, so ידבר has none.
־י and ־וּ take the stress and reduce the tsere: tedabrí, yedabrú. Pi'el follows the general rule; hif'il and the hollow verbs do not.
תדברו and ידברו are correct for a group of women. תדברנה is normative too, and rare outside writing.
The second-person future is the everyday imperative — תדבר איתו, תבקשי מהמנהל. That is register, not error.
The א/ר class takes a kamatz in the future stem: yevarékh, yegarésh, yeta'ér.

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